Presentation programs such as MICROSOFT® POWERPOINT® and LOTUS® FREELANCE GRAPHICS® are well known in the art. The generally accepted method of use of a presentation program is for the user to create a presentation in the form of a slide show on the presentation program. The user may then display the slide show in a presentation to an audience. When the user presents the slide show to the audience, it is useful for the audience to be able to determine the speaker's current contextual position in the slide show. The contextual location is the location of the current slide within the context of all of the topics within the presentation. Knowledge of the speaker's current contextual position in the slide show can add meaning to and increase the audience's ability to understand the information conveyed in the current slide. Currently, the audience has no way of keeping track of the speaker's current contextual position in the presentation. Therefore, a need exists for an apparatus that informs the audience of the speaker's current contextual position in the presentation.
Many presentation programs allow a user to place page numbers on the slides. Placing page numbers on the slides tells the audience how many pages have passed (i.e. the physical position), but does not convey any contextual information regarding the presentation. Even when the page numbers use the “Page X of Y” format, the page numbers do not convey any contextual information and can be misleading because the speaker can spend more time discussing some slides than others. An outline-type format is better suited for conveying contextual location information to an audience. Therefore, a need exists for a method of indicating the contextual location of the current slide in an outline format to the audience.
ADOBE® documents can be configured with an outline that displays contextual information for a static printed or electronic document. The outline contains the topics that have preceded the current topic and the topics that will follow the immediate topic. The outline is initially contracted, but the outline topics may be expanded by the reader. The ADOBE® outline is useful for static documents because the reader can review the document at leisure and has complete control over the document. However, the ADOBE® outline is not suitable for dynamic presentations, such as slide shows presented to an audience, because the ADOBE® software does not include presentation features, such as adding videos or sounds to the slides, and does not allow the speaker to make the slides animated or interactive.
Consequently, a need exists in the art for a method of informing an audience of the speaker's current position in a slide show. The need extends to a method of informing the audience in an outline format that is easy for the audience to follow. A need also exists for an outline in which the speaker can control the expansion and contraction of the outline. Finally, a need exists for an automated method for generating the outline from the slides in the slide show.